This invention relates generally to the field of musical instruments and more specifically to a compact stringed musical instrument.
Guitar and other fingered or chorded stringed instruments have, thus far, exclusively been configured with the strings located almost entirely over the sound box or over a neck axially co-located, lengthwise, on an axis of the sound box.
Instruments with their strings positioned entirely over the sound box are almost impossible to finger chords upon. The dimensions of the sound chamber are necessarily too great to allow a normal human hand to fit around it. Without the ability to grip the instrument on front and back, fingering and chording with the finger-tips becomes difficult.
Fingering and chording have been facilitated by adding a neck to one end of the instrument, but this also inconveniently increases the dimensions of the instrument, easily doubling its length. This added length makes the instrument more difficult to transport. It also makes it harder to play by increasing the reach required to touch both the strumming area over the sound chamber, and the chording or fingering area on the neck.
The herein-taught technology defeats the above shortcomings by a configuration that provides both compact size, and convenient playing characteristics plus pleasant tonal qualities.